


Every Aching Scar

by Writers_clock



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Dark, F/F, F/M, Gen, Relationships are not the point but they’re in there, Sad, Short, Violence, no beta we just die
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 08:02:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27700060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writers_clock/pseuds/Writers_clock
Summary: Four short stories, each centered around Catra, Adora, Glimner, and Bow.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 35





	1. They all fell

The slaughter was the easy part.

They fell like lambs. They fell like snow. They fell like hearts in love, they fell like all things do. It matters not whether they struggled, whether they reached for safety, whether it was painful. What mattered was that they all fell.

They fell as everything falls. As she did.

Catra’s muscles ached. She held no weapon. It mattered not; she had her claws. She was the weapon.

Tearing and clawing and ripping. There were a million words to describe the rampage, a million adjectives to glorify the way the soldiers fell under her claws, a million ways for her to end their lives.

There was only one that mattered: horrifying.

Days from now Catra would look at herself in the mirror, and she would see her scars, both old and new. She would stare and wonder where her reflection was. Who the stranger in the mirror had become.

But that was then and this was now, and she would fight and scream and end them. They would end as all things ended. That had no need for poetic verses or lists of adjectives. Everything ended, even Catra.

But for now she had the power. She could make them see. She could make them pay. She could destroy them for taking good things and making them…  _ pure. _

After all, Catra was a disease. Catra was a plague. Catra ruined whatever she touched, even herself. Nothing was meant for her. It was better this way. The memory of her would be lost, only spoken by those who cursed it or screamed it to the winds.

It didn’t matter now. She would die. She would not be at peace, she would not die for anything she truly believed in. She would die just as swiftly and meaningfully as a single drop of rain in the midst of a storm.

Death.

Catra was still fighting when she realized her eyes held tears. Were they from anger, the anger that consumed her, that clawed out her heart? Or perhaps it was grief, the grief that stole air from her lungs and ground from her feet.

Regret, perhaps. For as she fought, as she took every bit of energy she had…

Catra did not regret her choice. Even as Prime’s clones captured her, even as she watched Glimmer’s silhouette fade, she knew it was for the better.

Because perhaps there was one more emotion, lurking deep within her. Maybe past all those lies she forced herself to believe, the ones she lived off of… maybe there was an underlying truth.

_ Not you. Adora. _

Love.

Oh, how funny this was! How predictable of her, Catra, the emotional ex-Horde soldier. How amusing. She kicked at the feet of the clones, she made sure their every step was a struggle as they took her before Prime. 

_ All beings must suffer to become pure.  _ Bullshit. Catra had suffered her whole life. She had been beaten down, shamed, tortured. There was no purity to that. There was no beauty in her pain.

Nothing they did to her mattered. She had endured too much to break before Prime. She had caused Adora too much pain. There was only one fate left for her.

So, as all things fell, so did Catra.


	2. that was okay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora’s story.

Everyone had purpose. Everyone existed for a reason. Everyone had a role: in the war, in their family. Adora did not quite know hers, and that was okay.

She led the charge. She swung her sword… no. She-Ra swung the sword, She-Ra cut the clones down one by one. Adora did not know why she didn’t see herself as She-Ra. She was, of course, She-Ra. But at the same time, in a much more real sense, she wasn’t.

She-Ra had a purpose. She-Ra had to protect everyone. She-Ra would always be the one to go the extra mile, fight the extra battle, take on that extra battalion.

But when Adora lost She-Ra, it became painfully apparent that she was lost without that power. No, not power. Purpose. She-Ra was not just a source of power, She-Ra was a direction. She-Ra was forward.

And so Adora and She-Ra fought. Their enemies were many, their allies were tired, but still they fought.

_ I’m losing her. _

Who was Adora, without She-Ra? She couldn’t answer that, and it scared her. She had found She-Ra again, she could summon that strength, but for how much longer? She-Ra was slipping from Adora’s grasp.

Then what would happen? She would go back to the scared girl trying to save everyone. She would become that tired soldier, that tingle in her hands gone, that buzzing in the back of her mind disappeared. That magic was gone.

Adora did not want to become that girl again. But she was. That girl couldn’t fight. That girl was useless. That girl had no purpose.

_ Is that what you really want? To rule the world? _

Adora had asked Catra a question she herself could not answer. Well, she didn’t want to rule the world. But what did she want? Purpose. But what was her purpose? She-Ra? 

She-Ra was the never ending horizon. She-Ra was the one everyone loved. Everyone but Catra. 

Adora often wondered if they others questioned their purpose. Their ability to lead. Their role. Catra’s role had switched, and had she realized that? Had it gone back to its original state, with Adora?

_ Roles.  _ Adora knew she sounded like Double Trouble. She knew and yet she couldn’t help it.

She-Ra cut down the last of the soldiers, and knew the cheers were for her. Were for She-Ra. Were not for Adora.

Adora heard the cheers, and looked up into the sky. It was raining, but not heavily. Then again, nothing could compare to the crushing weight in her chest.

In the following days - or perhaps it was weeks? - Adora would see Catra slip away from her, and she would scream into the woods.

She had always fought, she had always struggled, she had always used She-Ra for her purpose. But what was hers?

She was nothing without She-Ra.

But Catra… Catra cared for Adora before she had She-Ra. Hadn’t she? It didn’t matter, of course. It couldn’t matter.

It couldn’t matter because She-Ra’s purpose was to save Etheria, and because Adora’s purpose was to be She-Ra. No, it was more than purpose. Adora staked her worth on She-Ra.

She was nothing without the power, so she had to use it accordingly. It had to be her. This was her purpose. This is what she was good for. This made her worth every struggle she had put her friends through. It didn’t matter what she wanted. It didn’t matter if she wanted to live. It didn’t matter because she was She-Ra

How could a star shine next to the sun?

Maybe this is what Catra had meant, all that time ago. When she had said she felt as though she was second best. Adora knew it wasn’t the same, of course. All the same, Adora could never be as important as She-Ra.

And that was okay.

Adora could live - or die, rather - knowing that she had saved everyone. She would die peacefully, and her friends would move on, and she would be more than an ex-Horde soldier. Hope would live on throughout the planet. It would be in capable hands.

Adora would have fulfilled her purpose. Adora would have become worthy of the sacrifices made for her, of the mistakes she had made. She would be someone her friends could be proud of, could love.

Adora had never known love in the Horde.

That was wrong, of course. She had felt love, but it had walked in hand with worth. Shadow Weaver “loved” her, so long as she succeeded. Catra never said she loved Adora, but as soon as Adora had been promoted, Catra had pushed her away. She could not have Catra and Shadow Weaver’s versions of love at the same time.

But she didn’t need Shadow Weaver’s love. She didn’t need that ache in her chest, that guilt on her mind.

Adora had a purpose: She-Ra. She-Ra had a purpose: save Etheria.

But Adora was  _ oh so very predictable  _ in her emotions, and she loved Catra. That was her truth.

Maybe she didn’t need a purpose. Maybe she needed to stop searching for one. But if everything was going to end, she might as well be honest; she needed to stop searching for ways to prove her worth. To stop giving everything she had and then herself.

Maybe Catra had seen that. And maybe Catra would grieve for her.

Adora loved, she loved so very deeply.

But her purpose was sacrifice. She was never meant to be here. She was brought here by the very thing trying to destroy the planet, which she had killed.

Adora was scared, so very scared.

_ Worthless. _

Adora hadn’t been able to save so many.

But she could save them all now.

_ Purpose. _

Adora’s purpose was to be She-Ra, and She-Ra’s purpose was to save Etheria.

Adora would be worth something if she fulfilled her purpose. Even if it meant her dying.

That was okay.


	3. all that mattered was

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glimmer’s chapter, taking place as she is held prisoner in Prime’s ship.

_ Child, soldier, commander, queen, prisoner. _

All words that had defined Glimmer in the last year. She stared at the door of her prison, floating in space. Floating among stars and galaxies and the entire world.

She wondered if her mother was looking down at her. She wondered if her mother would be smiling. Smiling at the child who lost herself. Smiling at the queen who would do anything to win.

Smiling at the people she was in between.

Glimmer clutched her poorly made weapon. If she was caught with it, she would surely be punished. Even if Catra saw it - Glimmer wasn’t sure she could trust the former Horde commander - Glimmer was done for. A risk, all for a little protection. For a weapon

_ Weapon. _

Glimmer cursed herself. Using the planet as a weapon was all that mattered to her at that moment. The power she had received for those minutes, before it slowly began killing her… it hadn’t been worth it.

Was anything worth it?

_ Child. _

Glimmer had been too young when her father passed. Too naive. Too delicate to learn of death. She was still a child. She hadn’t been a child since her father passed.

In her heart, both were true.

_ Soldier. _

Glimmer had begged her mother to let her fight. Let her release her emotions in ways other than crying and isolating herself in her room. In ways that let her befriend Bow.

Bow, her first friend.

_ Commander. _

Too  _ reckless _ , too  _ wild _ , too  _ inexperienced _ . Glimmer didn’t care. She would get revenge, she would  _ win.  _ That was all that mattered. Even after she met Adora, after she saw the softer sides of the Horde soldiers, her goal never changed.

Adora, the warrior her mother needed.

_ Queen. _

Glimmer was still the child, the soldier, the commander. Only now she walked alone, with no one to guide her. No one to light up the skies.

Alone.

_ Prisoner. _

Glimmer was truly isolated now. Away from Etheria, away from fresh air, away from everyone and everything she loved.

A princess, gone.

Glimmer scoffed. She hadn’t been alone before. She had been too focused on her goal. On  _ winning.  _ On being a good queen.

_ Queen. _

She had to be the best.

_ Queen. _

She had to make her mother proud.

Glimmer hadn’t let herself cry - really, truly cry - since the funeral. There was no body, so they couldn’t really bury anything, but there was a service. Glimmer couldn’t speak. She ran into the Whispering Woods, crying,  _ sobbing,  _ until Bow and Adora found her.

They were there. They had always been there.

The door to her prison flashed, and suddenly Catra stood before her. Saying nothing, doing nothing.

Simply slumped herself against the invisible wall between them.

One more word. There was one more word to describe Glimmer. It was something Catra needed, right now. It was something Glimmer should’ve been focused on.

_ Friend. _

Glimmer sat against the wall, her back in line with Catra’s. No words were spoken. There didn’t need to be words for an understanding to pass between them.

Friends, almost, in a strange way. At first Glimmer didn’t know how Adora had befriended Catra, let alone well enough to feel that aching regret as they fought.

But now she knew. She recognized that same yearning, that same mindset.  _ Nothing matters but my goal. _

Glimmer would escape from here. She would apologize to Bow and Adora. She would tell Bow the thing she barely admitted to herself.

She would make things right. 

_ Child, soldier, commander, queen, prisoner, friend. _

She would make things right between them, and win the war.

That was all that mattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think! If you want more characters than the main four, let me know and I might make this into a longer series.


	4. that they were together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter, Bow.

Bow had grown up in the war.

He had been protected from it, sure, but he knew it was out there. His dads never wanted him involved in it, but he did.

He joined the rebellion of his own choice, and promised from then on he’d make his own choices. He’d choose every day to be positive, he’d choose every day to be kind, he’d choose every day to try.

Bow chose to befriend Glimmer. He chose to trust Adora. He chose to forgive Catra. He chose to make easy decisions and hard ones, but all of his choices had one goal in mind.

The happily ever after.

Bow wanted a happy future. Who didn’t? He wanted to grow old with his friends, to have kids, to wake up every morning knowing he could choose happiness again.

He watched as magic returned to Ethernia, and knew that future could come true. He felt it settle deep into his heart, into his mind. He had never understood magic, he understood numbers and buttons and technology. That didn’t matter though - he knew magic felt like life, felt like warmth, felt like Glimmer.

_ Together. _

Finally, they were together in a mending world. A world he had faith in, ever since he was a child. A world he fought every day for most of his life to free. A world he wanted to be as happy as he was in this moment.

_ Catra. _

His eyes found her, watching the same magic he was. Bow wondered if she knew, all that time ago, that she would give up on anger and give in to what her heart truly wanted. He wondered if she ever understood what she wanted back then.

He hadn’t always known what he wanted, but he knew who he wanted to be with.

_ Adora. _

Bow watched Adora pull Catra into an embrace. He smiled as her face broke into a grin. Had she never entertained the thought of after the war? Had she never looked past the idea of sacrifice? Perhaps she had never known what or who she would be after the war. Perhaps she never thought she’d survive.

Bow never stopped hoping to survive. He never stopped fighting not to be alive then, but to live happily in the future, as much as hope could burn.

_ Glimmer. _

Glimmer had grown so much, had gone through so much. Nothing could dim that sparkle in her eye, that energy she radiated from simply being. Bow had seen that energy when they first met, had wanted to live in that light.

Maybe he could. Maybe they could be together.

Bow took her hand, and she smiled. She pulled him along to tackle Catra and Adora to the ground, causing all of them to laugh.

_ We’re safe now _ . He knew it to be true. They were safe, and they were  _ together. _

They had fallen so many times, but got back up again.

They had made things okay.

They were together. And that was all that mattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally finished it! I’ve been thinking of making more of these, so let me know if you want another one with a different character! Thank you all for reading, and let me know what you think!

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!


End file.
